CrimeFest Award Winners Announced

Winners of 2023 CRIMEFEST Awards 

CRIMEFEST, one of Europe’s leading crime fiction conventions, has announced the winners of its annual awards.

Now in their 16th year, the awards honour the best crime books released in the UK last year. 

The winner of the highly anticipated Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award, and £1,000 prize monies, is Stacy Willingham for A Flicker in the Dark published by HarperCollins.

A psychological serial killer thriller with a shocking twist, A Flicker in the Dark was an instant New York Times bestseller and Sunday Times Thriller of the Year and is set to be adapted into a major TV series.

Dame Mary Perkins, co-founder of Specsavers who sponsors the award, said: “We’re thrilled to support the debut author prize. As one of the judges, I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the shortlisted titles. Stacy Willingham’s debut, however, was a book I simply couldn’t put down until I had finished it.”

The eDunnit Award for the best e-book goes to Sara Gran for The Book of the Most Precious Substance, published by Faber & Faber. The absorbing occult thriller combining intrigue, magic and antiquarian bookselling was praised as “deeply atmospheric” by The Guardian.

Winner of the H.R.F Keating Award for best biographical or critical book on crime fiction is The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators by Martin Edwards, published by Collins Crime Club. Edward’s opus on the genre, described by the New York Times as a “impressive feat,” recently won a 2023 Edgar Award.

The Last Laugh Award goes posthumously to Christopher Fowler for Bryant & May's Peculiar London published by Doubleday. The author died aged 69 in March this year, having being diagnosed with cancer three years ago. His curious world of the nation’s oldest serving detectives, has been described as “deliriously eccentric” in the Financial Times, and “devilishly clever” by Val McDermid.

Best Crime Novel for Children, aged 8-12, goes to Sharna Jackson for The Good Turn published by Puffin. With themes of social activism, the spooky mystery from the former Waterstones Children's Book Prize Category Winner revolves around an internet-loving girl determined to start her own scout troop.

Best Crime Novel for Young Adults, aged 12-16, is awarded to Holly Jackson for Five Survive published by Electric Monkey. A gripping cat-and-mouse thriller, it was The Guardian Best Children’s Book of 2022.  

The Thalia Proctor Memorial Award for Best Adapted TV Crime Drama goes to Slow Horses (seasons 1 & 2), based on the books by Mick Herron. Produced by See-Saw, shown on Apple TV+, the drama, which follows a dysfunctional and disgraced team of MI5 agents, stars Gary Oldman. 

The award is named in honour of Thalia, a CrimeFest team member and a much-loved figure in the world of crime fiction, and is decided by public vote.

Adrian Muller, Co-host of CRIMEFEST, said: “We are proud to be one of the few genre awards that celebrate e-books, humour, children, and Young Adult novels. Our inclusive awards reflect the values of our convention as accessible and open to all. These awards are a true celebration of the crime genre, which continues to entertain and enlighten so many readers of all ages. We would like to thank Specsavers for their on-going support in celebrating new talent.”

Hosted in Bristol, CrimeFest is one of the biggest crime fiction events in Europe, and one of the most popular dates in the international crime fiction calendar, with circa 60 panel events and 150 authors over four days. Featured Guests at the convention this May are Mark Billingham and Elly Griffiths. 

Leading British crime fiction reviewers and reviewers of fiction for children and young adults, alongside the members of the School Library Association (SLA) form the CrimeFest judging panels. 

CrimeFest was created following the hugely successful one-off visit to Bristol in 2006 of the American Left Coast Crime convention. It was established in 2008. It follows the egalitarian format of most US conventions, making it open to fans, readers, and commercially published authors. 

All category winners will receive a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award.

2023 CrimeFest Award Winners

SPECSAVERS Debut Crime Novel Award

 A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham (HarperCollins)

eDUNNIT AWARD

The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran (Faber & Faber)

H.R.F. KEATING Award

The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)

Last Laugh Award

Bryant & May's Peculiar London by  Christopher Fowler (Doubleday)

Best Crime Novel for Children

The Good Turn by Sharna Jackson (Puffin)

Best Crime Fiction Novel for Young Adults

Five Survive by Holly Jackson (Electric Monkey)

Thalia Proctor Memorial Award for Best Adapted TV Drama 

Slow Horses (seasons 1 & 2), based on the books by Mick Herron. Produced by See-Saw. Shown on Apple TV+. 

What do you Write by Sara Gran

People ask me what I write. I have to say something, so I tell people I write detective fiction. This means very little. Detective fiction is most fiction; it covers everything from Genesis (who killed Abel?) to CRIME & PUNISHMENT (go Detective Porfiry!) to that fat paperback you picked up at the airport. But it still means something: genre is a joyous and beautiful set of rules, boundaries, formulas, and tropes. Everyone knows a murder mystery will be solved. Everyone knows the prime suspect didn't do it. A private eye with a bottle of whiskey in his hand is an image that has become a symbol: it tells a story to people. We know this man and we know his history: tough, bitter, hard-drinking, solves cases, easy prey for a certain type of woman. In this way, genre can be seen as a kind of language, and we can think of the tropes of genre as words. If you put a whiskey-drinking PI on a page with a woman in a tight red dress, you know what you're reading, and it's something like noir.

The joy in writing genre fiction is in the privilege of using this language. Once we see a scary little girl in a white dress and long hair, we all pretty much know where this story is going, and it ain't toward a happy ending. Imagine if every time you wanted to use the word "chair" you had to, instead, explain what a chair was and what it did. Genre gives us a series of building blocks to build a story without having to start from scratch every time.

If we use these building blocks exactly as they've been used before, we might end up with something smart and cool and fun, but we probably won't make anyone think twice if we give them exactly what they expect. Sometimes that's a good thing. Sometimes we need a fucking break. Sometimes we need to enter a story and know it's going to play by the rules and take us exactly where we expect -- maybe because the rest of life never seems to play by the rules, and we can never know what to expect at all.  

But the other joy in writing genre fiction is taking those boundaries and formulas and tropes and fucking them all up. Language is so wonderful when we use it as expected. Maybe it's even more wonderful when we use it in unexpected ways. For example, put together the word "chair" with something you haven't seen before. Maybe "apple." Now you've got something to think about. What's an apple chair? Or is it a chair apple? Or is it a chair with an apple on top? Hey now, what if it's an apple with a tiny chair on top? And a mouse lives there? See, here we are, already thinking and creating and making something new.

The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran (published by Faber & Faber)

Driven off the desert road and left for dead, Claire DeWitt knows that it is someone from her past trying to kill her, she just doesn't know who. Making a break for it from the cops who arrive on the scene, she sets off in search of the truth, or whatever version of it she can find. But perhaps the biggest mystery of all lies deeper than that, somewhere out there on the ever rolling highway of life. Set between modern day Las Vegas and LA, The Infinite Blacktop sees Claire at her lowest point yet, wounded and disorientated, but just about hanging on. Too smart for her own good, too damaged to play by the rules, too crazy for most - have you got what it takes to follow the self-appointed 'best detective in the world'?

More information about the author and her books can be found on her website.

Books to Look Forward to from Faber and Faber

July 2018

Cold Desert Sky is by Rod Reynolds.  No one wanted to say it to me, that the girls were dead. But I knew. Late 1946 and Charlie Yates and his wife Lizzie have returned to Los Angeles, trying to stay anonymous in the city of angels. But when Yates, back in his old job at the Pacific Journal, becomes obsessed by the disappearance of two aspiring Hollywood starlets, Nancy Hill and Julie Desjardins, he finds it leads him right back to his worst fear: legendary Mob boss Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel, a man he once crossed, and whose shadow he can't shake. As events move from LA to the burgeoning Palace of Sin in the desert, Las Vegas - where Siegel is preparing to open his new Hotel Casino, The Flamingo - Rod Reynolds once again shows his skill at evoking time and place. With Charlie caught between the FBI and the mob, can he possibly see who is playing who, and find out what really happened to the two girls?

September 2018

Driven off the desert road and left for dead, Claire DeWitt knows that it is someone from her past trying to kill her, she just doesn't know who. Making a break for it from the cops who arrive on the scene, she sets off in search of the truth, or whatever version of it she can find. But perhaps the biggest mystery of all lies deeper than that, somewhere out there on the ever rolling highway of life. Set between modern day Las Vegas and LA, The Infinite Blacktop sees Claire at her lowest point yet, wounded and disorientated, but just about hanging on. Too smart for her own good, too damaged to play by the rules, too crazy for most - have you got what it takes to follow the self-appointed 'best detective in the world'? The Infinite Blacktop is by Sara Gran

The Shrouded Path is by Sarah Ward.  The past won't stay buried forever. November, 1957: Six teenage girls walk in the churning Derbyshire mists, the first chills of winter in the air. Their voices carrying across the fields, they follow the old train tracks into the dark tunnel of the Cutting. Only five appear on the other side. October, 2014: a dying mother, feverishly fixated on a friend from her childhood, makes a plea: 'Find Valerie.' Mina's elderly mother had never discussed her childhood with her daughter before. So who was Valerie? Where does her obsession spring from? DC Connie Childs, off balance after her last big case, is partnered up with new arrival to Bampton, Peter Dahl. Following up on what seems like a simple natural death, DC Childs' old instincts kick in, pointing her right back to one cold evening in 1957. As Connie starts to broaden her enquiries, the investigation begins to spiral increasingly close to home.

October 2018

Under the Night is by Alan Glynn.  1950s Manhattan - Ad man Ned Sweeney finds himself an unwitting participant in MK Ultra trials, the CIA's covert study of psychoactive drugs. The experiment introduces him to MDT-48, a mind-expanding smart drug, which takes him away from his wife and young son and straight to the corridors of the richest and most powerful people of his day. But before long, Ned is dead. Over 60 years later, Ned's grandson, Ray, meets Clay Proctor - a retired government official who may be able to illuminate not only Ned's life and death, and also the truth behind the mysterious MDT-48. Both a sequel and prequel to Alan Glynn's classic debut.

Crimefest Award Nominees Announced

The winners of the CRIMEFEST awards will be announced during the Gala Dinner on Saturday, 17 May. The organisers would like to thank the sponsors and congratulates all the shortlisted nominees and their publishers.

Audible Sounds Of Crime Award

The Audible Sounds of Crime Award is for the best unabridged crime audiobook first published in the UK in 2013 in both printed and audio formats, and available for download from audible.co.uk, Britain’s largest provider of downloadable audiobooks. Courtesy of sponsor Audible UK, the winning author and audiobook reader share the £1,000 prize equally.

Nominees:

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Orion Audio)

A Delicate Truth by John le Carré, read by John le Carré (Penguin)

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, read by Robert Glenister (Hachette Audio)

Dead Man’s Time by Peter James, read by Daniel Weyman (Macmillan Audio)

The Chessmen by Peter James, read by Peter Forbes (Quercus)

Natural Causes by James Oswald , read by Ian Hanmore (Penguin)

  

Eligible titles were submitted by publishers for the longlist, and Audible UK listeners established the shortlist and the winning title.

eDunnit Award

The eDunnit Award is for the best crime fiction ebook first published in both hardcopy and in electronic format in the British Isles in 2013. The winning author receives £500 and a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award.

Nominees:

The Beauty of Murder by A.K. Benedict  (Orion)

Sandrine by Thomas H Cook (Head of Zeus)

Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway by Sara Gran (Faber and Faber)

Under a Silent Moon by Elizabeth Haynes (Sphere)

Cross and Burn by Val McDermid (Sphere)

Norwegian by Night by Derek B Miller (Faber and Faber)

The Red Road by Denise Mina (Orion)

Sign of the Cross by Thomas Mogford(Bloomsbury)

The Double by George Pelecanos (Orion)

The Feast of Artemis by Anne Zouroudi (Bloomsbury)

Eligible titles were submitted by publishers for the longlist, and a team of British crime fiction reviewers voted to establish the shortlist and the winning title.

Goldsboro Last Laugh Award

The Goldsboro Last Laugh Award is for the best humorous crime novel first published in the British Isles in 2013. The £500 prize is sponsored by Goldsboro Books, the UKs largest specialist in first edition, signed books.

Nominees:

Fire and Brimstone by Colin Bateman(Headline)

Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley (Orion)

The Axe Factor by Colin Cotterill (Quercus)

Calamitous Chinese Killing by Shamini Flint (Little, Brown)

Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen (Little, Brown)

A Little Murder by Suzette A Hill (Allison & Busby)

Norwegian by Night by Derek B Miller (Faber and Faber)

The Sound of One Hand Killing by Teresa Solona (Bitter Lemon Press)

Eligible titles were submitted by publishers for the longlist, and a team of British crime fiction reviewers voted to establish the shortlist and the winning title.

All the winners also receive a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award.